ML457239111

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

First seen as I was driving down the road, just north of the intersection. It flew right in front of me, and I knew it was different right away. When it banked and flew off to the side of the road I saw the yellowish belly and dark tail and initially thought this was a Western Kingbird. I pulled over and got out of my car. In a short time I was looking at the bird a little ways (100 feet) off the road. I throught I needed photos so I got my camera out and started shooting. I put out the alert to my local Telegram group and put a few of the photos on here and after a short discussiion with several others, we realized this was a Cassin's Kingbird instead. Within 45 minutes I had six other local birders here and we all had great scope views. The bird was very skittish and would not allow people to get close to it, and when a car would come down the road it flushed away from the roadside and landed out in the field aways. After a short time it would return to the roadside area and hunt over the grasses in the ditch. It would then land in the plowed field, anywhere from a foot to ten feet away from the edge of the grass. When I first saw it, and before other arrived, it did land a few times in the middle of the gravel road. This bird had a medium colored yellow belly, a dark gray hooded head and a clearly seen whitish chin area. The tail was dark, but not a solid black like I've seen on Western Kingbirds. I'll post photos and at least two videos I took of it.

Technical information

Dimensions

1620 pixels x 1080 pixels

Original file size

507.93 KB